Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Tis the Season

I'm pretty sure that the older I get, the shorter the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas becomes.  I'm more behind with my Christmas preparations than I've ever been.  Yikes.  So, what do I do?  I put it off for a while longer and try to catch up with my blogging.  Lots of pictures, so I won't talk much today. :-)


Bird.  Just kidding.  It was cold in November, the birds kept pretty busy at the feeders.


I had a birthday. Yay.  This is a miniature bundt cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes.  Carrot cake...oh...so...good!  Happy Birthday to me!


Birthday is done, time to get ready for Thanksgiving.  I bought a few grocery store bouquets and did my own arrangements.  It's always fun to play with flowers!


I had a long day of prep work the day before Thanksgiving.  I think I watched "Gone with the Wind" 4 times while in my kitchen chopping and cooking and arranging flowers.  I missed parts here and there, so it was fun to have on in the background.  A woodpecker came to visit our bird feeder...somewhat rare to see around here!  Glad I had the camera handy to take a quick picture before he flew off!


Thanksgiving table.  After all the cooking I can never seem to taste what I've eaten.  I think my center piece was off-center.  Oh well.


I am not an after Thanksgiving shopper.  I'm a sit around and watch the cats rester.  Meaning I'm too tired after getting my house cleaned and Thanksgiving on the table to even think about leaving my favorite chair.


It seems to me we should spend the weekend being thankful rather than dropping everything and preparing for Christmas.


But nope...Santa arrives on the Friday after Thanksgiving.  We weren't at a High School football championship game this year so we went to the Lighting Festival in our little home town.  It was a challenge to get me out of that chair, I'll say that much!


But the next day I got to look this big boy in the eye and tell him that I was thankful to be able to give him a treat...


...and a hug.  Those poor horses having to deal with a very early cold winter.  But now they've had a reprieve with above average days and temps in the 50's in December.  Not sure if it's global warming, but the weather sure has been mixed up!


Billy was thankful to be able to give Czar some loving too.


Czar doesn't look nearly as tall next to Billy.  I might have to save this picture for the next time Billy says his hair isn't red.  :-)


Skylar says...hay lady...you got any sweet feed for me??


You do?  Sweet!  I'll be smiling all day!!


That horse is a push over.


On the Sunday after Thanksgiving I made a quick Christmas decoration so I could get a picture of the boys before Billy went back to college.  They thought that the cats needed to be included.


My Thanksgiving tulips faded fast.  I kind of like tulips when they burst open....I think that they are interesting inside.


Eric and I were getting ready for a quick trip to Las Vegas, which meant that if I wanted the get the family calendars and a few other things printed in time for Christmas, I needed to get at it.  There is something about searching through pictures that makes me not want to pick up the camera at all.  I searched through a years worth of photos.  I'm never taking another picture again!


Well, I will, and I did, but I sure didn't take many while in Vegas!  Our flight was delayed a few hours on our way there.  Eric's sisters flight was cancelled, then the next flight delayed...after 10 hours of delays they finally arrived.


The weather in Vegas was outstanding.  I pretty much brought all of the wrong clothes thinking it would feel colder.  This was the view from our room.


On Friday night we went to the NFR....National Finals Rodeo.  Best rodeo ever.  Crummy cell phone picture, but I didn't want to deal with the camera in there!


Saturday we wandered around, ate, gambled, I lost, ate some more, gambled some more and saw Penn and Teller.  Great show.  How do they do what they do??


On Sunday Eric's sister and her husband headed for home, we headed back to the rodeo.  I was starting to feel pretty worn out, but wasn't going to miss the rodeo!


On Monday I woke up with a nasty cold.  And it was our day to fly home.  Ugh.  Sudafed, a nap, and trying not to breath on anyone in my little tiny space in the plane...it seemed like a long flight home.


Tuesday, after catching up with a little work my view for the rest of the day was this.


I'm thankful that I work from home.  I was really busy with work from Wednesday thru Friday, and I didn't need to worry about coughing and sneezing on anyone but me.


Saturday was Eric's birthday, he shares his birthday with his foster sister Dawn.  We usually have the birthday celebration for them here.  This year, we got the email from Dawn that she'd be happy to have it at there place this year....OK!  Whew!  Because between Thanksgiving, our trip, and then getting sick and getting behind in work, our house wasn't quite ready for company!


 Our outside lights are up.  The photo above is of some of our lights.  The one below is just one house from a neighborhood in Eden Prairie that has the most amazing light display.  Their backyard has even more lights, but there isn't a good place to take a picture.  It's spectacular!  And it's not going to happen here!


Anyway, I'm way behind with all of my Christmas stuff.  And I just found out that one of the main things that I am having printed probably won't be here until the 26th.  It took a lot of time to pull together, I thought I had ordered in time, and then today I saw the fine print.  The fine print is usually the most important information and really should be the large print.  So frustrating.  Everything except for the product that you ordered will get there before Christmas.  Gee, thanks.


Oh well, Christmas will come whether I'm ready or not.  So I might as well just get what I can done.  Eric and Brian went and picked out a tree.  The lights are on it and I'm going to tackle the ornaments today. The garlands are up around the house.  My winter village is up.


Now I just need to find some extension cords.  And do my cards.  And wrap the few gifts that did get printed in time...after I buy paper...and finish making the handmade gifts I started, and shop for the other gifts that I haven't gotten. And bake.  And sigh.  I guess I should have started in October.


I always know that it's coming...it just gets here a lot faster than I think it will!  I hope that all is calm in your part of the world.  Thanks for stopping by!


Monday, November 24, 2014

It's My Birthday

It's my birthday...so I'm giving myself a little break from the stuff I have to get done to catch up with my blog.  I had plans to be all caught up with my housework last week.  The more plans I make, the higher the odds that graphic design work will come in.  It was a busy week.


And since I'm not caught up with my housework yet and we are having Thanksgiving here, I'll keep this one to mostly photos.  The cardinal above was taken through my office window with a 2x converter to increase the reach of my lens.  It's a little fuzzier than I realized, but it was the best I had from that day.

The picture below is the fall garland I have on my stairs.  I don't like Christmas lights before Thanksgiving, but I do like the little bit of light this Fall garland adds to our early evenings!


I'm glad that the horses started getting fuzzy before the winter came.  I think that they knew what was coming before we did!


The neighbors tree was full of Cedar Waxwings last week.  Again, photos taken through the office window.  I tried some with the window open, but as the heat from the house rolls out it creates crazy waves in the air that distorts the picture.  So, I take the pictures with the window closed, dirty glass and all.


I thought that this pair in the pine tree was pretty cute.


They sure loved those frozen berries!


Cardinal in the front yard.  They come to the feeder at dusk and dawn.  So pretty.


I bought some stargazer lilies at the grocery store, they smell really nice.



Our high school football team won the state tournament on Friday night.


It's not the same without Billy playing, but still fun to see the kids succeed. They've had a long string of wins.


Some days the most entertaining thing around here are the cats.


And I'm ok with that!


I probably won't be back here until after Thanksgiving.  I hope you have a wonderful holiday with family or friends.  Thanks for stopping by!


Monday, November 17, 2014

A Cat in a Bowl

I have a really cool decorative bowl on my dining room table.  Our cat, Greta, has decided that it is the very best place in the house for her to sleep.  I put her in it once when she was a lot smaller, she curled up and took a nap.  She doesn't fit in it quite as well anymore, but that doesn't stop her.  She rests in it, watching for any activity out the window.


She bathes in it, makes sense to me.  I had the nerve to have touched her tail...immediate cleaning was required!


She doesn't like to look at the camera, this was as close as she got.


Ignore the human.  Sit in the bowl and ignore the human.


She's a funny cat.  I'm glad that she puts up with us!  Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your day!